US President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order to begin the process of shutting down the Department of Education, stating that while essential programs like Pell Grants and Title I funding for children with disabilities would be preserved and reassigned to other agencies, the overall department had failed to improve education despite massive spending increases over the past four decades.
“Today we take a very historic action that was 45 years in the making. I will sign an executive order to begin eliminating the Federal Department of Education once in for all. Democrats know it’s right. I hope they’re going to be voting for it because ultimately it may come before them. We have to get our children educated. We’re not doing well with the education in this country and we haven’t for a long time. It’s been amazing how popular this has been- everybody says it- Republicans and Democrats have said it they’re all saying it also with us are some terrific,” he said.
Trump claimed that when Former US President Jimmy Carter created the Department of Education, it was opposed by his cabinet and the Republicans.
“When President Carter created the federal education department in 1979, it was opposed by members of his cabinet as well as the American Federation of Teachers the New York Times editorial board and the famed Democrat Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan,” he said.
Trump said that historically, the opposition makes sense. As per the White House, the US Department of Education has spent USD 3 plus trillion since 1979. Since then, per-pupil spending has increased by more than 245 per cent– with virtually nothing to show for it.
White House data shows that Math and reading scores for 13-year-olds are at the lowest level in decades. Six in ten fourth graders and nearly three-quarters of eighth graders are not proficient in math. Seven in ten fourth and eighth graders are not proficient in reading, while 40 per cent of fourth-grade students don’t even meet basic reading levels. Standardized test scores have remained flat for decades. US students rank 28 out of 37 OECD member countries in math.
“History has proven them right. After 45 years the United States spends more money on education by far than any other country and spends likewise by far more money per pupil than any country and it’s not even close but yet we rank near the bottom of the list in terms of success. We are at the bottom of the list and we’ve been there for a long time. 70 per cent of eighth graders are not proficient in either reading or math. 40 per cent of fourth graders lack even basic reading skills. Our Public elementary and middle schools score worse in reading today than when the department opened by a lot,” he said.
“In Baltimore, 40% of the high schools have zero students who can do basic mathematics- not even the very simplest of mathematics. They’re talking about like adding a few numbers together,” he added.
Trump said that despite these failures, the department’s spending boomed by 600 per cent in a short while.
“Despite these breathtaking failures the Department’s discretionary budget has exploded by 600 per cent in a very short period,” he said.
Trump said that he was laying off the staff by half and defunding the department.
“My administration has initiated a reduction in force. We’ve cut the number of bureaucrats in half,” he said.
Trump said that the funds used to support students with disabilities and scholarships will be preserved and these duties will be provided to other institutions.
“The Department’s useful functions- Pell Grants, Title One funding resources for children with disabilities and special needs will be preserved. Pell Grant is supposed to be a very good program, Title One funding and resources for children with special disabilities and special needs- are going to be preserved in full and redistributed to various other agencies and departments that will take very good care of them,” he said.
“But beyond these core necessities, my administration will take all lawful steps to shut down the department as quickly as possible- it’s doing us no good. We want to return our students to the States. We want education to come back to the States and they’re going to do a phenomenal job. It’s a commonsense thing to do and it’s going to work,” he said.
He said under a new system, sans the Education Department, schools could compete with countries in Europe and China, which he said were out-competing the US.
“If you look at Denmark, Norway, Sweden- I give them a lot of credit. China’s the top 10 so we can’t now say that bigness is making it impossible to educate because China is very big but you have countries that do a very good job in education. I think they have a chance to do well but we’re going to be returning education very simply back to the states where it belongs. Governors and others in the state want it so badly they want to take their children back and teach their children individually. Probably the cost will be half and the education will be maybe many times better so we look forward to this,” he said.
Towards, the end, Trump made what he called a ‘personal statement’, where he said that his administration would ‘take care’ of all the teachers, even those who opposed this order.
“I want to just make one little personal statement- teachers to me are among the most important people in this country and we’re going to take care of our teachers. I don’t care if they’re in the union or not. That doesn’t matter but we’re going to take care of our teachers. I believe the states will take better care of them,” he said, adding, “We want to have our children well educated. we want them to love going to school.”
